December memories...

I had a good laugh when I realized Jenna's sticker was tempting me to gift her away.... hmmm, who would I give her to and how long before they return her? I do love my Jenna, it's just been one of those trying months of parenthood. Has anyone else dragged a child out of "dollar tree" while she screamed "I don't want my presents from Santa... I want my presents from the STORE!" Guess I wore out the "let's ask Santa" answer.
Jenna dictated her first letter to Santa. We are off to meet Santa today.
Morgan smiling for the camera but avoiding the flash. She is 18 months old and has started going to nursery at church. Whereas she didn't smile the entire time she was there, she did not cry either.
Morgan came downstairs after her nap with this hair-do.
Jenna and I created our family plus her two friends out of play-do.

Preschool!

Jenna started preschool this week with three of her friends from the neighborhood/church. The moms are rotating having it at our homes. As you can see she was so excited for her first day, although she was admittedly a little confused as to the purpose of preschool.

Me: Jenna, here we are at preschool!

Jenna: Why?

Me: So you can learn new things, like letters and numbers, and spend time with your friends.

Jenna: Why?

Me: Because I thought you would enjoy it.

Jenna: Why?

(walking up to the door, distractions...)

Me: Be good and have fun. I'll be back to pick you up in a little bit.
The next day as I was dishing out the McDonald's lunch - which I'm not ashamed to admit because, c'mon, most of us have fed our kids the stuff, and besides, I got the APPLE DIPPERS, which made it o.k. - Jenna proved her new skills by saying " 'A' is for 'Apple'... I did that at preschool." Yes! Hooray for preschool!!

This is how we play...

I question whether I am being a good mother when my girls play like this... do we not get out enough? Do I not take them swimming enough? Is the air conditioning on too high??? When I ask Jenna why she dresses up in winter clothes in the middle of summer, her reply - as to every question - is " 'cause I just want to". Morgan's response is harder to figure out because she is only 15 months old. If she could speak in clear sentences, I guess she would say "because Jenna did"... although the swimsuit was actually Morgan's idea. Really, though, I'm not that worried about my kids silly behavior, in fact I love seeing the imaginative play they come up with. Justin and I would agree we are so blessed to have these girls in our lives. I feel extra blessed to be the one with them most of the time... thank you "daddy" for going to work and "buying money" for our family so I get to be home. Yes, Justin, Jenna thinks you go to work to "buy money".

Sieze the day...

...a couple weeks ago we had an 80-degree day and went for it... we pulled that cheap plastic pool out of garage storage and the girls were happy.  Of course Mommy was then happy too.

I love that my kids appreciate the simple things in life... how much longer do I have before they are begging for bigger swimming pools, water parks, etc.?
Oh joy... can you tell we literally came out from hibernation this day?
Morgan is starting to walk and we noticed she says a mumbled form of her sister's name now!  Jenna looks out for her sister and yells at me if she gets near the stairs.  She saw Morgan take a tumble down a few stairs so she gets very concerned and tells her:  "No go down the stairs, Morgan!  You're gonna fall!"

Fire Station Fun

Jenna talked about the fire hose all day following our visit to a local fire station.

It was so fun for the kids (ok, and me too!) to get a tour of the fire station and see how everything works.  I give a huge thanks and hooray to our brave firemen who serve us!

Jenna thought it was pretty cool to sit so high up in the truck.

(keep scrolling down for Jenna's birthday post)

Jenna's 3rd Birthday

Jenna loved being sung too, although she acted shy. 

Jenna with a cheesy grin... she was happy with all her presents.

I was trying to convince Jenna to blow out the candle...

... but she opted to let her friends help her.  She had a great party with friends decorating cupcakes, playing duck-duck-goose, and just being silly and crazy.  She also had a fun party with family.

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Justin took Jenna to a daddy-daughter dance a couple weeks ago. Jenna loves to dance and we thought this night would be a special date for the two of them.

The whole night I was wishing I could be a fly on the wall at the dance... so I was soooo happy to get this picture. Thanks Sheldon and Kyra!

The girls looked like princesses!